Alien priory

Alien priories were religious establishments in England, such as a monastery or convent, which were under the control of another religious house outside of England. Usually the mother-house was located in France.Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms p. 10

They were established in England under the first kings of the Norman dynasty, but they soon became settlements of foreign monks, whose sympathies naturally centred in their homes across the seas, and whose main duties were the collecting and guarding of English rents and tithes that were sent year by year out of the kingdom to the parent house.

King John was the first to seize the alien priories, compelling them to pay into the royal treasury the sums or tribute — usually termed apport — which they had been forwarding to the continent. In 1294, when King Edward I of England was at war with France, many of the alien priories were seized, numbering about a hundred, and used their revenues to pay for the war. In order to prevent the foreign monks in southern coastal areas giving possible help to invaders, he deported many of them to other religious houses that were twenty or more miles from the coast.

King Edward II of England subsequently followed this example, taking the alien priories into his own hands, but he not infrequently appointed their priors custodians for a consideration, obliging them to pay to the Crown the apport due to their...
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